Hungry Love
by Enray
Summary: A response to Xrai's challenge 'pasta'. Two people from broken families are drawn together because of a pot of pasta.


This has been in my computer about 80% done for years now. I've completed it, but I'm not sure if I accidentally changed the style somewhere along the way. Hope that this will be entertaining.

**Disclaimer**: Not mine. Boring, I know, but it does the job.

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><p>A woman sighs as she puts down the phone. Her husband is going to attend a business dinner party, her son and daughter are attending a surprise party for a shared friend. Jane looks at the carbonara she made for her family, another attempt at a family dinner in many months. It seems that she would be eating alone tonight, again.<p>

_Dani shivers as she braces herself against a gust of cold wind. The snow crunches beneath her feet as she stumbles. It is much colder here than the other places she has traveled. Her ghost attribute may be able to help her withstand the cold better than the average human, but it cannot stop the pangs of hunger. She has long since abandoned the notion of travelling in her human form, afraid that she would die of hunger and cold should she turn human now. _

Jane clears the extra plates and cutleries off the table and returns it to the cabinet. The carbonara she can keep until tomorrow for breakfast, but it will not taste as nice as it is now. Once she has put anything unnecessary away, the mother of two returns to her table to settle down and have dinner. She is now used to the loneliness that hangs around her in place of her family during dinner, but it does not protect her from the sadness brought by it.

_A window catches her attention, making the halfa stop in her tracks. She looks past the transparent reflection of herself from the window pane to see the scene inside. Dani sees pasta. A whole pot full of it. She sees only one person eating, a woman, but she doubts the woman can actually finish the whole thing. The halfa puts a hand on her stomach as it growls. _

The woman notices a young girl outside the window. Her hair looks like it is covered in snow. The poor thing. Jane notices how cold she looks. How small the girl looks outside in the cold. Is she lost? Where are her parents? She heads for the door, determined to find out. No one should be left out in the cold.

"Hello there. Are you alone? Where are your parents?"

_Dani yelps in surprise as she notices that the woman is outside for the first time. She was looking at the food so intently that she did not see the woman come. Maybe she's a lot hungrier than she first thought. Feeling hungry is a human trait. She's in ghost form now. Maybe she's already dying from hunger in human terms. _

"_Around."_

Jane can tell that she's lying. A child with parents will not be in such a bad state as the girl before her. She can see the hunger the girl tries to hide. The clothes she wears are not clothes that parents will allow their children to wear in such cold weather and are so old and dirty that they would be given the death sentence by any good parent.

"Would you like to come in? There're too much food and too little people."

_The halfa tries to hide the fact that her eyes keeps straying back to the food but fails. Her body demands for food and will not take no for an answer. Just when she wants to decline, her stomach growls, as if angry at her for not accepting the offer. Dani blushes as the woman gives her a small smile. This time, when the woman invites her into her home, Dani enters. _

Jane gets a plate and a set of cutleries after telling the girl to sit at the table. Soon, both of them are seated and their plates have been filled with carbonara. She watches as the girl eats, slow at first, then faster as the girl finally feels how hungry she actually is. In no time, the girl has eaten alone the amount of carbonara that would fill her husband and her children.

"When was the last time you ate?"

_Dani looks back, trying to remember when she last ate before having this delicious carbonara. The answer she uncovers makes her cringe inside. The lady wouldn't like it. She decides to deliberately misinterpret the question. _

"_Today." _

She can sense that the girl is holding something back.

"What did you eat?"

_Crap. _

"_Toast?"_

That uncertain answer tells Jane all she needs to know.

"Are you free tomorrow?" she asks.

"_Yeah." _

_All she's doing is struggling to stay alive. No biggie._

"Would you like to have lunch with me? The company would be nice. My family are very busy people," Jane offers as much for the girl's sake as for her own. She has almost forgotten how it felt like to eat with someone, almost started to think that she was only capable of feeling lonely.

"_Really?" Is a total stranger offering to give her free food two days in a row? _

"Really."

"_Ok_."

Jane invites Dani to dinner after having lunch together. After dinner that night, she invites Dani for lunch the next day. Soon, invitations are no longer needed as they establish a routine. The girl she invited out of pity becomes a daughter she has always hoped for.

_Dani starts to think of Jane as the mother she never had. Jane's home is starting to feel like her own. She knows that eventually, it will be better for both of them if they stop being so close because she'll have to leave one day, but she can't pull herself away. She stays, hungry for a mother's love. Then one day, a tragedy disrupts the routine they have come to love and treasure._

She was cooking their next meal when the smoke alarm went off. Jane remembers running, she remembers unbearable heat, but she doesn't remember reaching the door. There's a large gap in her memory that she cannot explain.

_Dani almost screams when she sees the large fire engulfing Jane's house but she keeps her mouth shut, unwilling to let the crowd see her. She floats above the crowd, invisible as she looks for the face she wants to see. Dani finally finds her target, but instead of releasing a relieved laugh, she bursts into tears. For days, Jane doesn't move. Dani tucks her knees under her chin, wraps her arms around her legs, and waits._

Her house is gone. All that's left is a flat piece of land. Even the garden's gone. What happened? She calls for her family, but she receives no reply. Then she sees a familiar face, and smiles. But in reply, tears well up in those dazzling green eyes, and her daughter in everything but blood hugs herself and sobs.

"What's wrong?"

"_You're dead."_

_At first, Jane doesn't believe her, then Dani points out her arms, which glows blue now, and shows Jane her grave. At this point, the grave is still a pile of dirt with a stick bearing Jane's name and date of death stuck onto it, but Dani's sure that the dirt will soon be replaced by beautiful marble, with loving words etched onto it._

Jane stares at the words on the wooden stick.

She's really dead. But why is she still here if she's dead? For the first time since she woke up, Jane takes a good look at herself. Her arms are pale blue, and they glow faintly in the evening light. Much like what Dani is doing, Jane realizes for the first time.

"What about you?"

"_Me? I'm halfway there." _

_Jane doesn't understand, but Dani isn't surprised. She gives the new ghost a small smile and stretches out a hand towards Jane. She's afraid that if she leaves Jane here, Jane will become tied to her family, and she'll never be free. There's a place Dani wants to bring Jane to. Danny will be able to do something. Danny always figures out something. _

Dani wants to take Jane somewhere, somewhere far from her home, her family. She is hesitant to leave them. For so long, her family has dominated her life. She exists for them before she exists for herself. But Dani is also her family now, and the dead should not haunt the living.

_The hand that takes hers shakes faintly, but the blue eyes that look at her are trusting. Dani leads Jane to Amity Park, where she hopes to build a new family for both of them, one that really cares for them. _

As they leave, Jane looks back, and sees her family walking to her grave. Their eyes are swollen, and fresh tears run over dried tear tracks. They huddle before her grave, but as much as she tries, she cannot imagine herself with them. It has been so long since she last talked to her family beyond passing greetings.

_Dani can't help but wonder if she's making a mistake, if she's forcing Jane to do something she doesn't want to do. It looks like Jane still wants to be with her family, and who is she to tell Jane what she can and cannot do?_

She squares her shoulders and look forward. Jane Rineston is dead. The Jane leaving now is a new Jane, who will experience new things in new places. But she can't help but wonder if there is anything she could have done to save her family.

_Dani, noticing Jane's gaze on her, sends her a grin. Jane replies with a smile._

This time, she will make sure that everything goes right. She'll make sure she will never lose her new daughter.

_Jane's like a mother to her. And she'll do anything to make her mother happy. _

_**Forever.**_

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><p>If you really, really want to challenge me to write a story (more details on my profile), I'll probably accept it, but you're probably going to have to wait a long time for a response. How long? This challenge was made in 2008. It is now 2012. Yeah...<p> 


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